ThingsPondered

Snow is an act of nature, an act of God.   However, people who do not directly profit from it whine and moan.  The radio and television announcers warn us to leave early for work because it is going to take longer.  Casual conversations at stores or mailboxes usually center on the negative features of God’s chilly white gift.  Municipalities are either praised or castigated on their road crews’ performance in “disappearing” the snow.  Snow gets dumped on left and right.

Westerners fight the natural.  We are SO wrapped up in control.  We want control and we want, often, to speed up nature.  However, there is another way to react.   In the tradition of the Tao philosophies, why don’t we embrace snow instead of fighting it?

For a chunk of my life, I worked in American public schools.  Public education seems to be one of the few operations that shut down quickly at the least threat of danger to its participants.  I assert that in doing this, they are one of the few sane and sensible institutions.  If conditions are dangerous, shouldn’t EVERYBODY go home?  Is it really going to matter if that report is delayed by two days or the garment isn’t finished today?

Yes, yes, we can think of some deleterious effects of delay – food spoilage, opportunities lost, and so on.  However, other than a few essential services such as emergency health care and fire- and crime-fighting,  I say that the world should accept a snow-induced work stoppage, embrace it, and savor it.   

I have been to Richmond a few times in my life: several times decades ago and most recently for a job fair months ago.  I have made a conscious decision to move to central Virginia, despite lack of family, employment or buddies there (yet.)  Why, one might ask?

I could suggest all sorts of illogical reasons. For one, Richmond is the home of DrumBum – a totally cool online percussion supplies business.  I visited its offices during my job fair trip.  (I would love to win one of the free T-shirts, hint hint —   ) Or, I could say that the name “Parham” has mystical attraction for me.  Also, Virginia is a commonwealth, as is my current state.

Here are some of the more motivating reasons:  Richmond is within driving distance to my family and friends who are largely in PA, NY, and east coast states.  It is closer to the ocean than my current home.   I do not need to live on the oceanfront, but I surely would like to get to it more frequently than I now do.  According to city-data , Richmond has more days of sunshine than does my current home.  As I have Seasonal Affective Disorder, I am suffering where I live now in “below-average-land.”  Furthermore, the city of Richmond has many colleges and universities – I want to be near people with intellectual curiosity and who may be liberal-minded.  In fact, I am told that the Fan district is similar to a New York City SoHo and Greenwich Village.  WooHoo!   Additionally, I want to be near a city large enough to support live theatre and live classical music performances.  I think Richmond fills the bill there.  Also, I am counting on many more job opportunities in a large city. 

Thus, I have focused on Richmond as the answer to my needs.  Future employers, what can I offer you?

Would you like to know how relaxed and slow-moving life in the USA was for your grandparents or great-grandparents?  Why not travel back in time?  Marty McFly did it (backwards and forwards) in the Back to the Future movies.  Unfortunately, maybe we won’t live to enjoy that sort of technology.  However, despair not.   Even if you weren’t alive in 1958, it really is not at all difficult to get a sense of it.   Just consult a catalog from The Vermont Country Store .

The catalogue includes fashions such as Tangee and Tabu make-up from way back when.  There are even hair curlers, dusters, pettipants, granny panties, and portable hair dryers with the plastic-bag-type bonnet.  For the men, Bay Rum cologne is offered.

Within housewares and other supplies one can purchase the reusable douche/enema bag (a familiar sight half a century ago.)  Chenille and rib-cord corduroy bedspreads, flour-sack towels, manual typewriters, cloth handkerchiefs, and oilcloth kitchen appliance covers are some of the other treasures still made.

In foods, once again you can purchase and enjoy a bottle of cod liver oil, movie house Crows gumdrops, or Chiclets gum.

Please know that I mean absolutely no mockery or ridicule for this “Voice of the Mountains®“ family-owned establishment.  The store sells up-to-date products such as Pilates balls and Neti pots.  However, its vast array of older products is its jewel.  The Vermont Country Store is obviously meeting needs.  The bonus is that in doing so, it is providing a valuable lesson in anthropology for today’s young students and a nostalgic look back for the old gomers.

Sandy Sanctuary

In Charlotte Amalie on St. Thomas, almost at the the crest of the hill sits a beautiful jewel of a worship center.  It is hundreds of years old, full of carefully tended mahogany, and always endowed with a carpet of taupe-colored sand.

Historic synagogue in continuous use

The congregation Beracha Veshalom Vegmiluth Hasidim is better known as “the historic St. Thomas synagogue .” It is the only synagogue on the island. Founded in 1796, it provided a safe haven for worship for the Jewish families settling there. Although the current building was constructed in 1833, there never was a time since 1796 that the congregation dissipated or moved, no matter the government-du-jour. Therefore, since the synagogue is now in a United States territory, it holds the honor of being the oldest continually used synagogue under the U.S. flag.

But the sand?

If you are not right on a beach, can you imagine the central gathering room of a church or place of worship with - not a sprinkling - but a hefty, substantial, intentional layer of sand meant to be the floor covering? It is quite surprising, and, as an island synagogue, so fitting. The sandy floor is calm and quieting, in concert with Mother Nature, with the Gaiam of the Caribbean beaches. It feels absolutely welcoming to an island soul.

So responsive to the foot, the body, the being, this rolling sand on the floor greets the eyes like rolling waves of the sea. It is gentle, yet dynamic. It has a comfortable feeling. Nature. That of God’s world. And, it IS so quiet—which was probably the point. Anti-Semitism of the past may have led the congregants to muffle the sounds of their unique, non-Christian worship with a sand-covered floor. Another reason proferred is that the sand symbolizes the Egyptian desert crossed during the Exodus. Whatever the reasons, the sand is something to be experienced.